This invention relates to a plasma display panel and, more particularly, a multicolor plasma display panel for forming a color display.
In general, a plasma display panel of the type discussed here includes front and rear spaced apart boards and utilizes the space defined between two boards as a discharge space. Further, each of the boards is provided with a holder plate, a number of stripe-like electrodes coated on a surface of the holder plate facing the discharge space, a dielectric layer covering the electrodes and a fluorescent or phosphorescent layer set coated on the dielectric layer. The fluorescent or phosphorescent body of the layer set generally employs means to produce the photo-luminescence or cathode-luminescence due to excitation of the ultraviolet ray or electron beam.
In such a plasma display panel, an ionizable gas such as neon contained in the discharge space is discharged by electric power supplied to the tripe-like electrodes of two boards. Ultraviolet rays and free electrons are produce in the space due to discharge of the ionizable gas. The fluoresent or phosphorescent body (which is also called a luminescent body) is excited due to the ultraviolet rays and electron beams.
Thus, the plasma display panel of this type can display any color corresponding to a luminescent body.
The luminescence of the body is remarkably reduced when the plasma display panel is driven by alternating current (A.C.), that is, the polarity of the discharge is inverted at every discharge. Ions produced in the discharged gas bombard the luminescent body facing the discharge space upon every other discharge. Therefore, a remarkable reduction such as that caused by ion baking takes place on the luminescent body due to ion bombardment. The luminescence intensity is rapidly decreased to one half of the initial intensity in about 2000 to 3000 hours.